You belong with ME You idiot
by just delete this account
Summary: Modern day AU, tiny bit crack-ish. Basically, a parody of the You Belong with Me music video, featuring zombies and Sean/Alex. Yup, you read that right. Rated for zombie carnage and language, there's a more thorough summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys XD I'm taking a break from all the serious stuff to bring you this modern day, somewhat crack-ish horror/comedy AU. I've had it up on Tumblr for a bit and decided, oh what the hell, I'll post it here too. Double posting isn't going to kill anybody. Anyyyway, this is inspired by two things, Dance of the Dead and the You Belong With Me music video that Lucas Till (Havok if there's a small possibility someone out there doesn't know) was both in. This is basically how I thought the latter should've gone; meshed together with dance of the dead, HAVSHEE style ^^ beware, there is some poorly concealed Taylor Swift bashing in here so if you're a fan of hers I advise that you **do NOT read** and apologize for disagreeing with you.

There will be violence and a looot of swearing because what story involving zombies doesn't?

You've been warned but if that's cool with you then enjoy ^^

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><p>When Hank saw Sean practically rip the door to AP biology off it's hinges on his way out, fury practically rolling off of him and repelling everyone within a five foot radius, his first instinct was to stay far, far away. Because unbeknownst to most people, Sean's sense of humor and laid back, easy going nature was inversely proportional to the amount of violence and ill will he was capable of when he was thoroughly pissed. However, before Hank could pivot and go off to a safe corner to hide until Sean cooled down, he saw the redhead stop by someone's locker and peel a bright pink flyer stuck to it.<p>

Hank watched curiously as Sean stared at it, scoffed out a laugh and shaking his head, slowly ripped the poster into two pieces and threw it behind him as he continued to storm down the hall, hands shoved into his pockets. Throwing caution to the wind, Hank jogged until he was right next to Sean.

"Hey,"

Sean turned to him and Hank was glad to see that he didn't look as lethally pissed off as he did at a distance.

"Oh, hey Hank."

"What happened? You nearly hit someone when you threw the door open. Did you kick it?"

Sean released an exasperated sigh. "It's nothing, Mrs. Garcia's just being her usual pissy-bitch self again."

Hank chuckled lightly. "She really hates your class huh."

"Yup. Me especially. You know what? I just don't frikkin get it, that paper I handed in was worth way more than an 80! I stayed up til 3 AM writing that shit! And the last time I checked, I was getting something way higher than 76 in her class! Bitch hates me just because I skipped her class that one time, for a completely valid reason!"

Hank nodded sympathetically, remembering that afternoon near the beginning of the semester when Sean rushed out of school right before bio because he got a call from his younger brother's pre-school telling him that his brother had an asthma attack and his parents were both unavailable, leaving him with the responsibility of going there to pick him up and take his brother home. He missed a test and when he showed up the next day asking is he could take it, his teacher Mrs. Garcia refused to accept his excuse for not being there in the first place, claiming he skipped class. She hated him since then.

"Oh and look at this!" Sean said, rummaging through his messenger bag and shoving what really looked like an entire English class' pile of essays at his face. "She even had the nerve to tell me I need to raise my marks and gave me this assignment from hell for extra credit. She wants it handed in tomorrow. Goddammit Hank, she's out to get me, she really is."

Hank frowned and handed the thick bundle of paper he was holding back to Sean. "You know you could go directly to the principal and report her for unfair treatment right? I'm pretty sure a teacher could get fired for intentionally lowering someone's marks."

"Oh I will, I swear to god."

As they turned the corner, Hank caught sight of another pink flyer in the exact same shade as the one he saw Sean rip earlier and he chuckled, despite himself as he realized what the flyer was for. "So, are you extra pissed because you'd be doing your homework from hell at prom?"

Sean looked at him as if he'd just asked him if he wanted to bang the school slut. "And you ask me if I smoke pot at lunch? What have you been smoking? I'd rather lick the bottoms of Angel Salvatore's shoes than go to that glorified fuck fest you all call prom."

They made it to the doors then and they both paused to open them. Hank resisted the urge to cringe at the intense heat wave that smacked into them like a wall the second they stepped out of the school's finely air-conditioned hallways. Sean pulled off his purple beanie, fanning himself with it.

"So wait, are you going to prom?" he asked, gripping the open sides of his plaid shirt, contemplating whether he should take it off or not as they walked down the concrete steps leading to the parking lot.

Hank sighed. "Yeah."

Sean stopped walking to stare at him in mock shock, fiery eyebrows furrowed in a glare. He shook his head slowly from side to side.

"….Judging you Hank, judging you so hard."

Hank rolled his eyes. "Not fully by choice! Darwin wants me to go."

Sean frowned in confusion, peeling off his plaid shirt and leaving himself only in a faded purple shirt with a worn picture of Ernie printed on the chest. "Isn't Raven going to be there?"

Hank sighed heavily. "Yeah."

"And Darwin thinks it's a good idea to go parade you around in front of the girl you dumped for him?" Sean asked, stuffing his plaid shirt in his bag.

Hank shrugged, exasperated, as if he'd asked his boyfriend the same question numerous times.

"Well…I suppose, there's no reason for you two to be hiding from her considering you never really dated her…just basically lead her on because you're too nice to tell her you're gay and she should get lost." Sean said contemplatively as they reached his old, blue pick up truck.

Hank leaned against the door as Sean fished around in his bag for his keys and he sighed. "Darwin wanted to be there with everyone else, he says it's the last thing we all get to do together before graduation."

Sean tsk'ed without looking up from his bag, "The things you do for love Hank. I'm glad I don't have a boyfriend to keep me on a fluffy, pink love-leash." Hank glared at him and opened his mouth to retort before seeing a head of blond steadily approaching them behind Sean.

Hank smirked. "No, you're worse. He's not even your boyfriend and he keeps you on a love-leash."

Finally having found his keys, Sean looked up at Hank with furrowed eyebrows. Hank patted him on the arm before leaning in to whisper in his ear. "There's your princess, drive him home as always and try not to cringe at how whipped you are."

Sean glared at him as he walked away but immediately schooled his features to casualness when a familiar voice, accompanied by an equally familiar face greeted him.

"Hey," said Alex Summers, Sean's neighbor, childhood friend and who Hank liked to call the stocky-blond-idiot-that-Sean's-been-obsessed-with-his-whole-life. Which, you know, isn't true. He's only been 'obsessed' after they turned 14, the year of which Alex began getting his muscles and it was a crime not to secretly stare at him whenever he was changing with his curtains open.

"Hey. Ready to go home?"

Alex had two brothers and a single mom, seeing to it that he didn't have a car of his own yet, which was why Sean's made it his personal chore to give Alex a ride to school and back every day.

"Actually, I came here to tell you that Taylor wants me to walk her home today. Alison's extra pissed at her today and left right after fourth period so she doesn't have a ride home."

Sean resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I could only imagine, hell hath no fury like a hot teenage cheerleader who got dumped by her jock boyfriend 3 months before prom for her nerdy twin sister." He said, barely managing to keep himself from saying "overachieving, secretly-evil, blonde virgin." instead of nerdy. She's in a handful of academic clubs with Hank and if only Alex would believe him, Sean would have told him what kind of bossy, know-it-all, I'm-sweet-and-smart-and-perfect-and totally-better-than-you bitch she really was a looong time ago.

Alex rolled his eyes as if saying 'shit never ends' "Yeah. See you at home then, I guess."

"Yup, see ya."

Alex smiled at him and walked away. Sean watched him weave his way through the parking lot, to a tall, skinny blonde standing on the sidewalk. Her new glasses glinted in the sun when she tilted her head and flashed Alex a sickeningly sweet smile and Sean had to roll his eyes. He wondered if Taylor really needed glasses or if she ditched the hideously nerdy ones for a pair of more normal looking ones because 1)she didn't have to act as nerdy and saintly because Alex was hers already and 2)she still had to wear glasses for appearances.

She took Alex's hand and together they started walking, the bright summer sun bearing down on them both and highlighting their identically shaded blond hair. Sean got into his car and watched them go, absently calculating the chances that Taylor's hair was dyed. It probably was, Alex was a guy and his hair was prettier than hers. Sean snorted as he started up his car. He hoped she got tan lines by the time she got home.

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><p>Sean filled up a pot with water and set it atop the stove. He was making dinner and the stove's not on yet but he was already sweating.<p>

The house was boiling and Sean had half a mind to fill his bathtub with ice, jump into it with all his clothes on and walk around the house for the rest of the night like that. He glanced at the clock above the stove. Just 5 PM. To save up on energy, his parents, being one level above tree-huggers, have forbidden them from turning on the AC until at least 6:30 but fuck it, one more minute of this and he'd die of heatstroke.

Sean went over to close the window above the sink and frowned when he spotted the thin trails of smoke in the distance that were constantly rising up from the power plant they built just on the edge of the town. No wonder it was so hot, all the smog coming from the power plant must be fucking up the atmosphere directly above them, trapping all the heat and keeping any cooling down from happening.

Sean sighed and snapped the window shut before heading out to the living room to turn the AC on. He turned it up to full blast and went around the house closing all the windows afterward. When he was sure no cold would get out, he went back down to the kitchen to continue with dinner. He turned on the stove and took out the pasta and the sauce. He was about to take out the monster homework he'd been assigned to work on it while the water heated up when the phone rang.

"Hello?" Sean asked, cradling the phone between his shoulder and his ear as he rummaged through his bag.

'_Hey sweetie, it's mom. Listen, I know we're supposed to come home tonight but uncle Seamus got into a car accident, so me and daddy might be stuck here in Ireland for about two more days,'_

"Oh. Okay then, is uncle Seamus ok?" Sean asked, pulling out a pen and the miniscule mountain of papers that'd be his companion for the rest of the evening, and possibly the morning after that too.

'_He will be after a while I think. Anyway, take care okay? Make sure Liam goes to bed early and be good, both of you. Love you.'_

"Ok. Love you too, bye mom."

Sean had just put down the phone when his little brother came marching into the kitchen, his buzzing cellphone clutched in his tiny five year old hands. "Seaaaaan, your phone is ringing." Liam Cassidy was basically a mini version of Sean except with a little less freckles and hair that was more strawberry blonde than red. Sean glared down at him. "How did you get-?" he began before remembering that he left his phone on the coffee table before turning on the tv so Liam could watch his kid shows. Sean sighed and snatched the phone from Liam's hands.

"Hello?" he asked, moving to sit at the kitchen table and get started on homework, before being stopped by Liam who walked over and tugged at the hem of his shirt. "Can I have Dr. Pepper?" Sean rolled his eyes but stood up to get one from the fridge.

'_Are you sure you're not going? I'll feel safer with you there.'_

Hank's voice crackled through the line as Sean passed the can of soda to Liam who grinned at him, snatched it with both hands and ran back to the living room, singing the Thomas the tank engine theme song as he went.

Sean sighed. "Darwin's a big boy, he could take care of you."

'_Raven likes you, she'll be less inclined to do anything to me if you're there'_

"She doesn't like me, she just doesn't hate me."

'_There's a difference?'_

"Byyye Hank, I got shit to do."

Sean heard a disgruntled groan from the other end of the line. _'Hate you. Did you finally confess your undying love to Alex on the ride home? Did he ask you to prom? Are you busy ransacking your closet for something to wear as we speak?'_

Sean rolled his eyes. "No, I'm busy riding him til we're both so sore, we wouldn't wake up until next Tuesday."

'_Ughhhh eww, even when it's an obvious lie, it's still gross'_

"Here's something even more gross, he walked her home and goody-goody Taylor is probably doing that to him right now."

Hank laughed. _'Now I know why you're so pissy. Nahh, she holds on to her reputation too much, maybe a blowjob.' _

Sean snorted as he answered the first few questions of his liturgy of a homework. "Alright, subject change. Now."

'_You know, bad as she is, she's still a step up from his ex-girlfriend.'_

Sean snorted again as he remembered the stove and he stood up to check on the water. It was just slightly bubbling. He cradled his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he opened up the pasta and dumped it all in the pot.

"Hank, his ex and his girlfriend are twins, I'd say it was half a step up. Alison was just a more concentrated, less hidden evil. God, Alex is a frikkin idiot."

Hank snorted through a laugh. _'You're the one who likes him, what does that make you?'_

"…Touché Hank, I applaud you, now shut the fuck up."

Hank laughed again. _'Alright, alright. You're too busy having your own issues to be of any use to me. See ya. If Raven gets drunk and rips my head off, may I be in your conscience.'_

Sean didn't even bother to counter that and merely hung up, poking at the pasta he was cooking with a wooden spoon.

Just then Liam ran back into the kitchen and started tugging at the hem of Sean's shirt again.

"Can I have a sandwich?"

Without looking up from the pasta he was cooking, Sean answered. "No, dinner's almost ready so there's no point."

"But I'm hungryyyyyy." Liam whined. "Please? !"

"Just make him one, he'll never shut up if you don't."

Sean jumped in surprise and whirled around to find Alex standing there still wearing the red tank top that showed off his toned arms perfectly and cargo shorts he wore to school, hands shoved in his pockets and looking nothing short of delectable.

"I got two brothers, trust me."

Sean raised an eyebrow at him, shoving Liam away lightly as he walked over to the fridge to get some sandwich stuff. "Back already? Thought I wouldn't be seeing you until prom was over. And would it really kill you to ring the doorbell and not just grab the key from the overhang and creep in here like some freaky stalker?"

Alex lifted himself onto the counter and watched Sean assemble a simple ham and cheese.

"I knew you and Liam were the only ones home and c'mmon, unless I was wielding an axe, you'd always let me in." Alex said, flashing him a charming grin and Sean had to hit himself mentally at how much Alex was right. 'Actually, even if you were holding an axe, I think I'd still let you in.' He thought, watching the late afternoon sun streaming in from the window play across Alex's features, highlighting his hair, (which Sean knew for a fact was naturally blonde unlike his wholesome edition Barbie of a girlfriend's) and one of his eyes, making it look like a very pretty shade of sky blue.

"I thought you'd be at Taylor's until 7 or something then run home to change then go straight to prom."

Sean said, then out of habit, picked up a slice of cheese and handed it to Alex. Alex grinned and took it. "Wow, I haven't stolen cheese from your kitchen in a long time." He commented, peeling off the plastic wrapping and nibbling on a corner.

2 years to be exact, ever since Alex got into football and started dating Alison, he hadn't had much time to hang around Sean's kitchen to nibble on processed cheese while he watched him cook like he always used to when they were younger…Not that Sean pinpointed the exact date he started spending less time with him. Honest. Really.

Sean shrugged, finishing with Liam's sandwich and handing it to him. Liam took it and ran back into the living room. Sean dusted bread crumbs off his hands on his jeans and regarded Alex with a half smile.

"Yeah, I remembered when I used to give them to you just to watch you scrape your fingertips raw trying to get cheese off of your braces."

Alex gave him a look and shook his head. "You are the only ginger without a soul."

Sean begged to differ, as the real reason he did that was because even when everyone, Alex included thought that the braces he used to have were hideous, Sean thought they were cute.

But Alex, never had to know that so it didn't matter.

"Anyway, why are you here and not at Taylor's?"

Alex shrugged, looking away. "I'll be with her all night, I could afford to spend some time with somebody else."

Sean bit his tongue, keeping himself from making any rude comments about exactly what he thought Alex would be doing with Taylor all night. He knew Alex wouldn't appreciate that. He resisted the urge to slap himself, Hank was right. Goddammit, Alex wasn't even his and he had him on a leash, this was ridiculous.

"Oh. Well, I'm honored that the great Alex Summers, star athlete and future prom king is choosing to spend his afternoon with me right before his coronation." Sean said, batting his eyelashes at Alex who rolled his eyes and shoved him playfully in the shoulder.

"You know, it's really a shame that prom is too much for your delicate hipster sensibilities."

It was Sean's turn to roll his eyes and opened his mouth to degrade prom once more but Alex was quick to put a hand over his mouth and stop him. "Save it, I get it already, prom is horrible. But you know it'd be a bit better if you were there."

Sean's pulse sped up a bit and he covered it up with an incredulous expression. "Why?"

Alex shrugged. "For some reason, you're my best friend. Highschool protocol says we have to get thoroughly smashed together at prom before we graduate."

"You raise an excellent point, why _are _you my best friend?

Alex sighed and before he could say anything else, Sean took the slice of cheese he handed him earlier and shoved it in his mouth.

"And anyway, why are you going? I thought dances weren't your thing."

"One my girlfriend wants me to go and two, if I even thought of resisting, my mom would force me to go."

And with that, Sean conveniently noticed the smoke oozing out from the pot lid of the pasta and sauntered over to turn off the stove and busy himself with preparing the rest of dinner to keep himself from saying anything.

Alex ended up staying over for dinner and by time they were finished, it was an hour to prom. After starting a mini water fight with Sean while he washed dishes, he sauntered over next door to his own house to get changed.

Sean relocated to his room to (see if Alex left his window open again and watch him change while he pretended to) do his homework. Before he left, Alex stood in front of his window and Sean had to pretend to just notice that Alex's curtains were open when his phone started buzzing, flashing Alex's number. Sean got up and stood in front of his so they were face to face. He answered the phone.

"What?"

Alex raised his phone to his ear. _'You sure you don't wanna leave Liam with my mom and go?_'

"Yes."

'_Please?'_

Sean grabbed an open notebook on his cluttered desk, hurriedly scribbled something on it with a green highlighter and held it up in front of him.

Alex raised an eyebrow at the bright neon NO sign Sean was holding.

'_Oh well, I tried. Have fun sitting alone in your room tonight loser'_

Sean put his phone down on his desk, gripped the notebook with his other hand and hid the one that was previously holding it behind the notebook. Alex laughed when Sean took away the notebook and unveiled a freckled middle finger, proudly sticking up from his fist. Alex shook his head and waved once before picking up his suit jacket and walking out of his room.

Sean sighed after he left and plopped down on his desk, he stared at his partly finished homework for a few seconds, then with a click of his tongue, turned it over, stood up and made his way downstairs. Liam was still on the couch, watching tv, exactly like he left him before he went upstairs and he looked up as Sean made his way into the living room.

"Sean, you look cross." He commented as Sean plopped down on the couch next to him.

"Do I?" he asked.

Liam held up the Thomas shaped pillow on the couch and bobbed it up and down as if it were nodding.

"Was it Alex's fault?"

Sean smiled at his brother. "Why would you think that?"

Liam shrugged. "Every time you look like that, it's always after you talk to Alex."

Sean "hmm"-ed and pulled his younger brother onto his lap. "Yeah, Alex is a dumbass sometimes." Liam shushed him. "Don't swear." Sean rolled his eyes and grabbed the remote. "Can I watch tv?"

Liam nodded but ordered him to change channels 10 times before letting him be. Much to his surprise, they stopped at some zombie film about a town's cemetery spitting up dead people and said dead people taking over the entire town and crashing the dance at the local highschool.

"What are those?" Liam asked, pointing at the screen.

"Those, are zombies."

"Why are they attacking all those teenagers?"

"Because teenagers are stupid and horny."

"Like your friends?"

"I suppose so."

"What does horny mean?"

"Nevermind."

"Ok."

They watched zombies scare and bite the living fuck out of teenagers for a bit and Sean knew he should probably change the channel but Liam was a smart kid and it took more than prosthetic make up and fake blood flashing on a TV screen to scare him.

"Would zombies come out and attack the kids at your school?"

Sean snorted. "I hope so."

On the other side of town, at the local cemetery, which was also conveniently located right behind the power plant, several graves began rattling and few were already torn apart, as if they were dug open.

And two blocks away from that, the senior class of 2011 were having a prom, blissfully unaware of the hell of a night they were in for.

**To be continued….**


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm sorry." Darwin murmured for the tenth time in 5 minutes.

Hank looked away from the dark roads outside to regard him over the rim of his cracked glasses, which fell and accidentally got stepped on when an intoxicated Raven marched up to him and socked him in the face.

"It's fine, I was only half expecting her to do that." Hank lied. 2/3 of his subconscious was fully anticipating an event similar to what just happened. "Besides, I think she didn't get drunk on purpose, somebody must have spiked her drink or something. I think I saw Angel smirking right before Raven punched me and she's always hated me since I intentionally gave her the wrong answers back in 9th grade."

Darwin looked away from the road and took one hand off the stirring wheel to lightly prod Hank's cheek. "I'm still sorry though. Does it still hurt?"

"Nah, I was bullied until I got taller than most jocks, I'm used to taking punches." Hank joked lamely, looking around curiously as Darwin bought the car to a stop. He squinted intently out the window, closing one eye and keeping the one behind the less damaged lens to see better. "Why are we at the cemetery?"

Darwin offered him a strange mixture of devilish grin and affectionate smile. "It's quiet, dark, deserted and no one, especially Raven would think to look for us here."

Hank grinned and moved forward a bit when Darwin leaned over to kiss him. Their lips just touched when a scream echoed in the distance. Hank pulled away and began scanning the cemetery with a frown on his face. "What was that?" Darwin put a knee up on the driver's seat and braced one hand on Hank's door so he could peer out as well. "Do you think somebody's getting mugged in there?"

They waited for a bit just staring at the darkness behind the crooked wrought-iron cemetery gates, looking for anything lurking in the shadows. After a few seconds the scream came again, followed closely by another and another, each one louder than the last. Pretty soon the screaming was accompanied by a few silhouettes that grew in numbers the closer they got. Darwin squinted harder.

"What the hell?" he whispered before settling back in the driver's seat, angling the car so that the headlights were facing the gates and turning them on.

They came up just in time to illuminate a man that seemed to be the groundskeeper as he smacked into the gate, screaming bloody murder. Right behind him there was a mini throng of….

"What in the name of FUCK?" Darwin yelled as what really looked like the undead began gnawing and tearing at the groundskeeper, some of them gnawing at the bars and reaching through them, shaking their rotting limbs in their direction as if reaching for them or pointing at them saying "_you're next"_

"Shhit, whatever this is, we gotta get as far away from it as possible!" Darwin exclaimed, frantically starting the car. The sound of the engine nearly got drowned out by Hank's scream when a zombie smacked it's face right against his window, leaving dirt and dark, clumpy blood everywhere as it started banging at it.

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><p>Sean watched the ending credits of Dance of the Dead roll by through eyes that were half-lidded with boredom. Liam was slumped, fast asleep against his chest, he fell asleep right before that part where that bassist that looked like Alex got devoured by a crowd of zombies.<p>

Sean smirked, figuring that a mob of ravenous zombies tearing that guy to shreds wasn't a bad analogy for how Taylor would devour Alex tonight when she pretended to lose her virginity to him.

He sighed, tilting his head back and resting it on the couch. God_damn_ he was bitter. Maybe he should really start giving Hank credit for being right about everything. Maybe he_ was_ obsessed with Alex.

"I am ridiculous." He muttered before gathering Liam in his arms and carrying him upstairs to his bed. When he was tucking him in, Sean caught sight of the tall conduits of the power plant still blowing ozone-melting smoke to the sky and he shook his head, remembering what animated those zombies in the movie.

He dropped by his room to grab his unfinished homework and as he descended the stairs, just for the hell of it, he began mapping out the most likely scenario in his head should the toxins from the power plant somehow manage to infect the nearby cemetery and raise the dead from their graves. By the time he was seated at the dining table enjoying a can of Dr. Pepper, he was amusing himself over the thought that the closest populated place to the cemetery tonight was Grand Baccus hall, the venue in which the prom was being held. He figured that since there'd be a ton of people all in one place and (if the movie were to be believed) there'd be music blaring loud enough to be heard over an entire block, the zombies would definitely all swarm the place.

He plugged his earphones in, turned his iPhone up and went through his homework, half-assing questions that he didn't feel like answering. When he got to one asking about decomposition, his thoughts automatically lead back to zombies crashing prom and since he was listening to the bass battle from the Scott Pilgrim sound track, he got side tracked to that bassist that looked like Alex. That, lead to him imagining Alex bashing zombie skulls, which lead to him thinking of Alex looking extremely hot while he did so, which lead to him remembering Taylor with him at the moment, which lead to him being bitter all over again.

Sean sighed, he needed a cigarette, otherwise he might give in to temptation and print out a picture of taylor, post it on his garage door and throw empty beer bottles at it. And with that thought, Sean stood up, got a pack of smokes from his dad's secret stash under the sink in the downstairs bathroom and went outside. The heat was downright stifling after all the time he spent indoors where the AC was on full blast but he didn't care. He sat on the concrete steps leading up to the backdoor, blowing smoke into the humid July air, allowing his nerves to calm down and all the jealousy and frustration to fade from his system.

When the cigarette was half gone, the rusty old tire swing hanging from the ancient oak in the corner of his backyard caught his attention and Sean frowned, remembering how he and Alex always used to play on it when they were kids and all the summers they spent camping out on a little tent right beside it, telling each other ghost stories, talking about cartoons and wondering what they'd do when they grew up. Sean blinked slowly as he realized that he liked Alex even back then, it was just a little crush but still.

Wow, he's certainly been the infatuated best friend for a looooong, long time. He didn't know what should astound him more, the fact that he's liked Alex this long or the fact that, frank and reckless as he was, highschool was almost over and he still hadn't told Alex. Soon enough they'd be heading to two different colleges, they'd barely get to see each other, if they would at all. He didn't have much to lose if he let it all out now.

He'd never been afraid of getting rejected before…but then again, he hadn't known and liked anyone for as long as he did Alex. Sean's frown turned contemplative. Hmmm….Hank's obsession claims seem even more probable now.

Sean heard a few things clatter to the ground and he turned to the direction of the sound, eyebrows furrowed. There was a narrow alley between his house and Alex's and it was partially cluttered with rakes, shovels and other gardening tools that their families were too lazy to put back in the garage after spring. It really sounded like someone was stumbling through that alley now, knocking over stuff as they went.

When the loudest crash sounded, Sean stood up and pulled out one earphone. He jumped off the porch steps and prepared himself, thinking that some drunk guy had somehow managed to stumble his way in between houses. Sean walked over to the mouth of the mini-alley and sighed as he saw a figure silhouetted in darkness, slowly limping towards him. Sean squinted at it. Oh great, did he get someone who was drunk _and_ injured?

"Umm, excuse me, are you ok?"

The person didn't answer, just kept limping towards him and Sean frowned, reaching over to flick the switch on for the backyard lights.

Sean's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he suddenly found himself staring at the half rotted face of an old man, one empty eye socket was crawling with mites and maggots and the rest of his face was bound in wrinkly, leathery skin that was sprouting mold in a few places. His clothes were dirty and torn and Sean saw that he was missing a foot, which explained the limping. As he came closer, Sean was hit by the overpowering stench of rotting flesh and all he could do was back up a few steps and curse every swear word he knew in his head because holy mother of fuck, there was a fucking zombie in front of him.

The zombie tilted it's head at him then with a low, raspy, growl-like sound akin to a rusty see-saw, it bared it's teeth and charged at Sean.

* * *

><p>Darwin grabbed at Hank and pulled him away from the window, urging him onto the back seat. Hank, terrified as he was, frantically complied. As soon as he was out of the way, Darwin scrambled over to the driver's seat, braced his shoulder against the door and grabbing hold of the handle, he took a breath and shoved it open as hard as he could, throwing his whole body into it. It effectively knocked the zombie off and Darwin immediately slammed the door shut afterward, practically jamming the lock with how quick he pushed it down.<p>

"Darwin!"

Darwin looked behind him to see Hank kneeling on the backseat, peering out at something from the back windows. He turned to him with wide eyes and afforded Darwin the view of 3 more zombies slowly making their way closer.

"Oh, fuck" Darwin swore, before jumping back on the driver's seat. He started the car immediately, put it in reverse and stomped on the gas. Hank got knocked into the back of the passenger's seat with the force of the momentum, and watched, cringing as zombies were barrelled over and smacked against the back windows. Then the next thing he knew, the car was flying forward and Hank barely managed to keep himself from smacking forward against the backseat, he peered out front, watching as Darwin hit an oncoming zombie that was stupid enough to stand right in front of them.

* * *

><p>The zombie moved astonishingly fast considering it was old, dead and missing a foot and the next thing Sean knew, a rotting hand was wrapped around his neck and he was holding a rotting wrist with one hand, keeping it from also getting at his neck and he was bracing his other hand against a dirty, bony chest, that was most probably actually all bone beneath the clothes. The zombie released a sound similar to a growl, stretching it's neck toward him frantically, jaws snapping over and over like a rabid dog. Sean released a cry, then with all the strength he could muster, he kicked the zombie in the stomach, sending it tumbling over and landing on it's back.<p>

As soon as it was off him, Sean wasted no time and ran into the alley, grabbing the first object that could serve as a makeshift weapon he could find. He ended up grabbing a broken rake that fell apart when he picked it up, leaving him with nothing more than a long, metal stick. He didn't have time to pick up something else though because then the zombie was up again and charging at him. He swung the broken rake like a baseball bat and had to wince when it caught the zombie right in the jaw, the rotting joint snapping in half and the cracking of it reverberating through the metal and right into Sean's hands.

However. Despite having it's jaw broken, all the zombie did was stumble sideways a bit and within the next second, it was at Sean again, it's jaw hanging slack at an odd angle. This time, Sean attempted to hit it in the stomach with the end of the rake and failed when the zombie grabbed at the rake, causing Sean to panic and let go of it right away. Then, to make things worse, something fell over near the opposite end of the alley and Sean cursed when he saw another figure stumbling through, steadily making it's way towards them. The zombie he was still fighting lunged forward, making a grab at him and Sean shuffled back, yelping in surprise when he tripped on something and fell backward. He landed on the gravelly ground with a thud and the fall suddenly made him remember his iPhone. His earphones got caught on something in the fall and were yanked out, causing Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent to suddenly start blaring out in the silence of the alley.

All of a sudden the zombie stopped moving and Sean stared at it in confusion for several seconds. He looked to the side to see the zombie he saw coming in earlier about five feet away, also standing still, it's head tilted to the side as if it was listening to the music. Sean blinked, remembering the movie he just saw.

'_Are you fucking kidding me?'_ he thought, cautiously standing up.

He looked back and forth between the two zombies for the next minute and they remained there, stationary, swaying from side to side slightly like they were moving to the music.

_'Well…fuck'_ Sean thought. _'someone has to give whoever wrote that movie a medal or something'_ He pulled out his iPhone, holding out safely in front of him like some sort of zombie repelling crucifix while he scanned the alleyway for something more useful. A machete lay hidden under a pile of knocked over gardening tools and Sean immediately went for it. Cautiously, with his iPhone still held out in front of him, he approached the zombie that he'd been fighting with and slowly raised the machete. He waited to see if the zombie would snap out of it for a second and when it didn't, Sean swung the machete at it's neck, it sunk a little more than halfway through. Sean felt and heard all too painfully well when the blade got caught on bone and he cringed, yanking it out immediately before going off to the other zombie and doing the same to it. He swung harder at that one, taking it's head clean off. Well, almost. It's head was left hanging off a strip of skin and flesh before the zombie went down.

After it did, Sean looked back at the first zombie, which now lay twitching on the ground. He ran over to it and chopped off what he didn't got to of it's neck earlier and after it stopped moving, the full impact of what just happened hit him.

"…Holy, shit" he whispered before the smarts that people refused to believe he had kicked in and he remembered that in the event of zombie apocalypses, like what was obviously happening right now, or so it seems, there was never only two zombies.

"Liam!" he suddenly yelled, rushing back into the house and upstairs as fast as he could.

Thankfully, there were no zombies in the house when he got there and Sean barely managed to contain his relief as he shook his brother awake.

"Mmm…wha?" Liam muttered sleepily.

"Don't ask questions, we have to get out of here, now." Sean said, not even waiting for Liam to wake up fully before gathering him in his arms and heading down to the garage. He was halfway there when he remembered his theory on what should happen should zombies rise to life tonight…and since he just witnessed for himself that a)Zombies _were_ prowling the town as of the moment and b)They _did _like music then…

Sean cursed again and, murmuring to Liam to hold on to him, who sleepily complied, wrapping his skinny little limbs around Sean's neck and his waist like a koala—he began calling Alex's phone while he rushed to his house to tell the rest of the Summers what was happening and get them to leave town with Liam. His call went to voice mail and Sean cursed again.

"Dammit Alex, would you stop whatever nasty thing you're doing with Taylor for a second and pick up your fucking phone, you have to-" Sean trailed off when he saw the door to the Summers residence wide open and the house dark and empty. "- …Shit" Sean cursed and hung up, running inside immediately.

"Hello?" he called out. "Mrs. Summers? Scott? Gabe?"

Sean went around the house, calling out to Alex's mom and brothers, turning lights on as he went and he was just about to give up when he passed by the basement door and his call was answered.

"Sean?"

The voice was muffled but he heard it and he immediately backed up and went for the basement door which opened immediately to emit Mrs. Summers. She was holding a steak knife and her shirt was smeared with dirt and blood but still Sean couldn't be more relieved to see her despite looking like a murderer at the moment. She sighed in relief when she saw them. "Oh thank god you're both ok! Are your parents home yet? Oh god, please tell me they're ok."

"No, they're still in Ireland, they'll be there until Thursday. Where are Scott and Gabe?"

"Scott's away on a trip with Jean and Gabe is right he-"

"Mom!"

Mrs. Summers and Sean both stiffened in alarm when Gabriel Summers all but burst through the basement door and threw himself against it, sealing it shut. "Mom, they're not dead, they-" and with that the door rattled and almost burst open. Gabe screamed and started pushing against it. Mrs. Summers did the same. As they did, Sean immediately ran for the surround system, grabbed one of Alex's Rammstein CDs and started playing it at full blast. He ran back to the basement door and sighed when it stopped moving. Mrs. Summers and Gabe stared at it and each other in confusion but before they could ask, Sean cut them off. "You all have to get out of town and as far away as you can, take Liam please. I'll go get Alex."

Mrs. Summers turned to him. "We can all go get him then-"

Sean shook his head. "No, you really have to go. Please. I'll get Alex, I promise."

Mrs. Summers looked hesitant for a second but she nodded reluctantly and within a few minutes, she, Gabe and Liam were all in the family's Volkswagen.

"Sean, what's going on?" Liam asked as Sean fastened the seatbelt around him.

"Well, zombies are about to kill my friends."

Liam blinked. "Oh…ok. Are you going to go save Alex?"

Sean sighed. "Yeah."

Liam blinked again, the look in his eyes implying that as a 5 year old, he knew more than he let on and he understood the situation perfectly. "Ok. Should I kiss you bye bye?"

Sean took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. "Maybe."

Liam grabbed Sean's face in his tiny hands and kissed him on the cheek. "Kick ass ok?" Sean smirked and held his fist out, Liam tapped it with his own. "I will." He turned to Mrs. Summers in the driving seat. "Be careful. We'll call you."

After they left, Sean rushed back to his house, grabbed everything that could serve as weapons that he could get his hands on, then after a second of deliberation, his mom's cd player and all the cds he owned. He was loading all of it onto his truck when he got a phone call from Hank.

'_Sean, Sean! You're n-never going to believe it-'_

And he didn't even have to continue, Sean already knew from the barely concealed "I-am-flipping-the-fucking-shit-out!" in Hank's voice.

"I assure you Hank, I probably can. Where are you right now?"

'_Umm, we're heading to your house, to come get you and-'_

"Great, I'm just leaving, meet me halfway."

* * *

><p>Alex sat awkwardly next to Taylor as she talk-…no, discussed her chances of being valedictorian this year with her best friend Selena.<p>

"It's totally going to be you, you know. That Asian kid might be smart but nobody likes him anyway."

Taylor just smiled and shrugged but he could see it in her eyes and the slight tightening of her jaw that she agreed with every word Selena said. Alex sighed and reached into his pocket, taking a slight comfort in the way his fingers brushed against smooth, old plastic that he's secretly kept all these years. He brought it tonight to help him stand his ground and remind him that he was doing the right thing. He cut his eyes to Taylor…time to see if it actually would.

"Hey, wanna dance?" he asked, tapping her on the shoulder. She turned to him with one of her blindingly bright smiles and nodded. Saying bye to Selena, she took his hand and lead him to the dance floor.

A floor below them, a couple had snuck their way down to the basement. They were in the middle of a hot make out session when a crash made them both jump. The girl pulled away and walked over to the corner where the crash came from. "What was that?" she asked, looking around warily. Her eyes narrowed when she saw a broken window, wide enough to let someone sneak inside and she turned around to warn her boyfriend that there might be someone there with them.

She came face to face with a zombie who immediately lunged forward, grabbed her head and sunk it's teeth into her face. She started flailing and screaming at her boyfriend to help her but, seeing as the zombie started gnawing at her eye socket, she didn't see that he was also in the process of being attacked and devoured by not just one but two zombies. They boyfriend flew backward, kicking and screaming with zombie teeth latched to him and he hit the power box of switches on the wall.

Back upstairs, Alex was in the middle of saying, "Listen Tay, I got something to tell you."

All the lights suddenly went out and Alex looked up in surprise. Simultaneous cries of surprise and exclamations of inquiry erupted all around the dance floor and Taylor moved closer to Alex, clutching his shoulders tight.

"What was that?"

**To be continued**


	3. Chapter 3

Sean, Hank and Darwin all agreed to meet up at the school parking lot and when they all got there, the first thing that Darwin did was stare at Sean for 5 whole seconds and say. "Just tell me you killed somebody who's already dead and I will be at peace." Sean just stared at him blankly until Hank gestured to his face and said. "Sean, you got a little umm…". Sean reached up to swipe the back of his hand across his nose and cringed at the bit of guts and dark blood he found there. "Auggh, eww." He looked up at Darwin. "Yup, I beheaded some zombies earlier, no worries, they were half worm feed when I found them."

Darwin nodded and sighed before leaning against the car door. "What the hell is going on?"

Sean walked over to the bed of his truck and opened it. "Well, first and foremost, you two have to have something to defend yourself with. I ransacked my garage and my tool shed but I don't have much. Is anyone in your house tonight?"

"Darwin's parents are out of town and I called mine to tell them to get out of town asap. We should too." Hank said, rummaging through the assortment of tools and household items cluttered in the trucked.

"I'd feel safer with guns or…holy water or something but," Darwin said pulling out a baseball bat from the mountain of objects and testing out how it feels in his hands. "I guess this'd have to do."

"Ok, I know this sounds crazy, I saw it in a movie but it actually works, I tried it. Believe it or not, zombies like music. They stop moving when you play something to them." Sean replied, picking up the machete he used on those zombies earlier and slipping it in his belt. Hank just stared at him through narrowed eyes.

"…usually I wouldn't have to ask but seriously…are you high right now?"

Sean groaned. "I'm serious!" he grabbed a flashlight and shone it at his eyes. "and no, I'm not. Now, kindly stop being an analytical dick and listen to me. Hank, we are being attacked by _motherfucking __**zombies**_last time I checked, science hadn't exactly given us any know-hows on how to deal with them."

Hank seemed to accept that answer and nodded.

"Besides, I think it makes sense, a little bit. I mean, music is proven to affect brainwaves, whatever's going on in a zombie's head, music must throw it off somehow." Sean continued, finding an exacto knife in the open toolbox he tossed into the truckbed on his way out of the garage.

"Alright. Now, I really believe you're not high." Hank said.

Sean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Oh and one more thing, about the music? All those zombies are probably headed to the prom right now."

Hank opened his mouth to ask, paused as it all came together in his head and frowned. "Oh my god."

"What? What?" Darwin asked, looking back and forth between Sean and Hank in confusion.

"Nonstop, ear-blasting music and about 400 students in the same place, holy hell, our graduating class is going to be zombie feed." Hank explained.

Darwin's expression turned horrified. "…If they aren't already. The cemetery's right down the road from prom, how long's it been since we saw all those zombies at the gate?" he asked.

"Guys, we're the only ones who know about this, and we can't waste our time trying to convince the authorities that zombies are going to storm our prom and feast on our classmates. We _have_ to go over there and save who we can." Sean said.

Darwin went silent as he processed what Sean said, Hank bit his lip, looking torn between self-preservation and moral bravery. "…you just wanna save Alex." Hank muttered, looking like he wanted to take back the words the second they slipped out. Sean glared at him flatly. "Well yeah, if you want to be blunt about it. Oh and I think it's worth mentioning that he's my _best friend_ and I promised his family that I'd go get him after I convinced them to get the hell out of town without him." Hank flinched, guilty.

"Besides, he's your friend too." Sean added, staring directly at Darwin who was Alex's second closest friend after Sean.

Darwin sighed and nodded. Then he turned to Hank who was obviously not suited for dealing with any kind of apocalyptic scenario and was still having a mini-breakdown about the whole thing. He lightly grasped his arm. "You can take my car and run if you want." He offered, unabashed concern in his eyes, not caring about the fact that Hank might rather run than risk his life trying to save other people. Hank stared at him for a long moment, looking at war with himself, then finally he sighed and grabbed a nearby kitchen knife. Darwin smiled at him when he looked back and behind him, Sean was smirking.

"_Fluffy pink love leash_" he mouthed.

"Alright, so, what's the plan boss?" Darwin asked, turning around to face Sean. As soon as he did, Hank pouted and gave Sean the finger. Sean ignored it.

"It's pretty straight forward, we just go in there, grab who we can and get out. If zombies get in the way, we rip their heads off."

Darwin clucked his tongue. "Alright. Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p>Alex illuminated his wristwatch with his phone and he sighed. He'd been sitting here, in the dark. surrounded by a sea of complaining teenagers for the past 15 minutes. They've been told that people were working on solving the problem and getting the lights and sound back on but Alex was seriously starting to think that prom was pretty much over. Taylor was gripping his arm, like she had been practically since the lights went out and Alex internally sighed, contemplating whether or not he should wait til they're all officially sent home, wallowing in disappointment to break up with her.<p>

He cringed. Breaking up with a girl at prom was a jaw-dropping, concsciousness-stealing, grudge-earning thing to do, he knew that and he agreed that it was a very ass-hole-ish move for the most part but he's lied to himself and Taylor enough, everyone affected by that deserved better. His thoughts immediately wander to Sean and he frowned, pulling out his phone to check up on him. Alex blinked at the " 1 missed call" display on the screen and tilted his head curiously when he saw Sean's number below it. He turned to Taylor with an apologetic half-smile that was barely visible in the low lighting provided by the lamp posts outside and the emergency lights.

"Umm, could you excuse me, for a sec, I got a missed call, I think it might be from my mom. I'm gonna go call her back."

Taylor smiled back and nodded. "Ok, I'll be here waiting."

He nodded at her and made his way to the bathroom. Leaning against the open doorway, he checked his voicemail and listened to the 1 message left there.

'_Dammit Alex, would you stop whatever nasty thing you're doing with Taylor for a second and pick up your fucking phone, you have to…Shit-' _

and that was how the call ended. Alex stared at his phone with a deep frown, concern rapidly settling into his system. Sean's made a few prank calls to him before just to be a dick, but this…this was different. The strain and the alarm in Sean's voice sounded so real, it made the hair along his arms stand up.

He dialed in Sean's number and started tapping his foot impatiently. If it _was_ a joke, he was going to strangle Sean because it worked…_was_ working. Fuck it why did that call just abruptly ended like that? Almost as if Sean suddenly found a psycho wielding a butcher's knife and hung up to run for his life. Alex shook his head to be rid of the disturbing mental image and sighed.

The phone kept ringing and the longer it did, the lesser Alex's rationality got and the chances that something really _really _bad happened to Sean got greater in his head.

Finally Sean picked up and Alex almost sighed in relief but then Sean immediately jumped in with _'Alex! Are you ok?'_ Alex's brows furrowed "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he asked, wondering if Sean somehow knew about the blackout they were experiencing. _'Get out of there, right now! Look, this is gonna sound absolutely batshit crazy but-'_

A scream pierced through the air then, so loud that even Sean heard it. _'What was that?'_ he asked, echoing Alex's thoughts.

The scream was followed by a crescendo of different ones in varying degrees of pitch and volume and the sound of glass and porcelain being shattered mixed with tables being overturned. Alex leaned out to look out into the hall. It sounded like a riot was going on.

'_Alex! What was that, what's going on?'_

"I don't know. I'm gonna go check it out, I'll call you back ok?"

'_What? Wait, don't-…!'_

Alex hung up, stuffing his phone back in his pocket and running back to the main hall where prom was being held. He skidded to a stop when he got there and just stood, staring at the sight that greeted him.

People were all pushing and shoving each other, trying to get out through any open passageway they could find. A few windows were smashed, tables were overturned and…and…

"What the _hell_?" Alex whispered.

In the dim light, Alex could see what really looked to be the undead _everywhere_, tearing at people with their teeth.

* * *

><p>"Well…I don't know if we got here just in time or if we're too late." Darwin commented as they got out of their cars and stared up, wide eyed at the building where prom was supposedly being held. The lights were out and from outside, everything was eerily silent. Sean grabbed the cd player from the truckbed three random CDs from the entire collection he brought. The CD player had a detachable strap on it and Sean swung it over his shoulder, carrying it like an oversized gym bag.<p>

"So, are we sticking to the original plan? Because it just sounds really stupid right now." Hank commented

"As of now, yes. We'll think of something more strategic when we get there and see how things are." Sean replied, taking the CDs out of their cases and putting them all in the CD player so he wouldn't have to carry them in his hand.

Darwin nodded. "Ok. He patted Sean on the arm. Don't die."

Sean cringed and smirked. "You too."

And so, armed with crude, makeshift weapons and a desperate wish not to die, they braved the front doors. The atrium was dark, with only one dim emergency light in the corner to illuminate the emptiness of it. The entire place wasn't all that big and almost as soon as they walked through the doors, they heard the sound of faint screaming.

"I…think we got here just in time." Darwin said, clutching the baseball bat he had in his hand tighter and holding an arm out protectively in front of Hank.

"The power is out, so this'd be useless." Sean said, looking down at the cd player. "So, I guess first order of business is to find a way to get the power back on."

"Ok, then let's go." Hank said, grabbing Darwin by the arm and dragging him off somewhere before anyone can say or do anything else. Sean followed "Where are we going?" Hank looked back at him as they walked. "To the basement, where the power switches are, duh."

"How do you know they're there and not in a supply closet somewhere?" Darwin asked.

"I worked here last summer, I know where everything i-" Hank said, opening the basement door as soon as they reached it and practically throwing himself against Darwin when a zombie lunged out at him. Hank screamed and Darwin shoved him aside, swinging the baseball bat at the zombie's head. It hit the mark with a cringe-worthy crack and the zombie fell to the floor. Darwin bashed it's head open with two more brutal hits to make sure it wouldn't get up again and for a few seconds afterwards, everyone just stared, wide –eyed. Sean blew out a puff of air and patted Darwin on the shoulder. "Nice hit…s"

Hank screamed again as more zombies started filing out of the open basement door and Sean's first instinct was to reach for the machete in his belt but after a split second of deliberation, he pulled out his iPhone. Darwin swung at every zombie that got close with his baseball bat, sometimes only managing to make them stumble back while Hank stood beside him, fending off zombies the best he can with the French knife he had.

"How the fuck did Michael Myers kill so many people with this? This is frikking useless!" Hank complained, slashing at a zombie's wrist only to have it drop the hand that was reaching for him and rmake a grab for him with the other one. Darwin smacked it in the eye with the hilt of the baseball bat.

"Sean, what the fuck are you doing?" Darwin called out, looking over at Sean, who looked like he was texting. He opened his mouth to yell again but was distracted by two zombies who made a lunge for him at the same time. He bashed one in the face and broke the other one's jaw as the first one went down, nearly hitting Hank with how hard he swung the bat at the second one.

All of a sudden music was blaring out, sounding louder than it actually was in the near empty atrium and all the zombies that weren't done for and those that are still continuing to come out of the basement stopped moving. Hank and Darwin stared at them, perplexed then turned their gazes to Sean who was holding up his iPhone, which was cranked to the loudest setting, playing Black Sheep by Metric at full blast.

Hank raised an eyebrow. "Well…I'll be damned."

Sean pulled out the machete with his free hand and swung it at the nearest zombies neck, it sunk halfway through and the zombie fell sideways. When it landed on the ground, Sean stomped on the machete, making it cut through what was remaining of the zombie's neck and pulled it out. He beamed at Hank.

"Told you."

And with that, they made their way down the basement, taking off heads and breaking necks. (or simply shoving them out of the way in Hank's case)

"Oh my god, _Jesus_." Hank exclaimed when they made it to the bottom of the steps. "It's like the entire cemetery is down here." He continued, looking around at the room full of zombies.

"Ah, shit, they're coming at us!" Darwin yelped, holding up his bat with both hands. Sean thrust his iPhone out at the zombies and sighed when the ones closest to them stop moving.

"Ok, not to be discouraging or anything but I think the music is wearing off." Darwin said eyeing the zombies that were a few feet away who were still trying to get past the thin wall of music-tranquilized zombies around them and sink their teeth into them.

"No, no, no. Bodies absorb sound, those ones over there probably couldn't hear the music. Sean turn it up louder." Hank said.

"I can't, the volume is already at the loudest it could go."

Hank thought for a second and pulled Darwin's blackberry out of his pocket. "Find an outlet, plug in the cd player and turn it up to full. I'm going to go try to turn the power back on." Hank commanded, scrolling through Darwin's music and setting the volume to the loudest it could go. When Darwin's phone was screaming Supermassive Black Hole by Muse, Hank started weaving his way through the zombies that stopped moving the instant he got close to them, Darwin closed behind him, bashing zombie heads as he went to make sure none of them could sink their teeth in Hank's back as soon as he passed by.

Sean went the opposite direction, still using his iPhone and music as his anti-zombie shield and managed to find an outlet under the stairs. He plugged the CD player in, loaded the Billy Talent CD he just realized he brought and yelled out to Hank.

"Hank! Did you get it yet?"

A few feet away, Hank surveyed the blood smeared power box, took a moment to sigh in relief that it was only dented but not broken in any way and after flicking a few switches, turned the power back on. A loud whirring sound accompanied the power's return and a few zombies stirred as it overpowered the music blaring out from the phones slightly.

Sean turned on the music player and just as he was waiting for the CD to load, the song he was playing on his iPhone ended. Sean cursed, picking up his machete and slashing the first zombie that lunged for him across the face.

"Sean!" Darwin shouted.

Thankfully before anything else untoward could happen, the CD kicked in and Worker Bees by Billy Talent filled the room and every zombie in the room paused.

Sean sighed heavily in relief and struck a nearby zombie with the hilt of his machete.

"Ok, power's on let's get out of here!" Hank shouted and started hurriedly making his way back up the stairs and out of the basement. Darwin and Sean followed him out.

When they made it back upstairs, they went straight for the French doors that lead to the ballroom. Sean pulled them open, cursed when he saw the literally bloody, utter chaos going on inside and slammed the doors shut again. From the looks of it, it seemed like a crowd of zombies and live people have smacked together and all the live people were being eaten.

"Fuck, we're too late." Hank muttered.

"No, I saw a few people running and screaming." Sean said.

"Ugh, god I saw a few zombies huddled over somebody on a table. It's like a cannibal orgy in there."

"What do we do now? We left the CD player in the basement." Darwin asked.

"I have 2 CDs and the power is on, we have to get to the sound system, when we have the music on, we can grab who we can and pretty much just walk out." Sean replied.

"Yeah, there's just one problem, the sound system is next to the stage and between us and it, there's an army of hungry zombies." Hank interjected. "…wait, there are backdoors, we can reach the sound system without getting eaten if we go through there."

Just then Sean's phone started ringing, Sean jumped in surprise and looked at the caller id. He couldn't have moved fast enough when he saw that it read _Alex_.

"Alex!"

'_Dude, you have to come get me, by any chance, when you called me earlier, were you going to tell me that zo-'_

"Zombies were coming to prom and tear you guys apart limb from limb? Yes. Where are you right now? Are you ok?"

'_I'm fine, hiding under the stage. Taylor's with me, she's injured, a zombie bit her earlier. Help.'_

"What?" Just then there was the sound of something falling to the ground with a thud and Sean barely heard Alex whisper a hurried '_Igottagobye'_ before the line went dead.

"Alex! Shit." Sean cursed and hung up. He turned to Hank and Darwin. "When zombies bite you, you get infected and turn to one too right?"

Darwin and Hank looked at each other. Hank shrugged. "Like you said, no one gave us any know-hows about these things but since the movie you saw got one thing right, did the people who got bitten in it turn to zombies too?"

"Oh fuck…"

"Why? What's going on? Did Alex get bitten?"

"No but his girlfriend did. He's with her right now. We have to find him, now."

Hank and Darwin nodded and ran for the nearest exit. Sean paused in front of an "In case of an emergency" glass case in the wall and smashed the glass with his machete. Darwin and Hank paused to look back at the sound and was met with the sight of Sean jogging toward them with an axe in his other hand.

"Here. You'll fare better with this." He said, handing the Axe to Hank who promptly threw away the kitchen knife he was holding in favor of grabbing the axe with both hands. He sighed. "Thanks." And lead the way outside, and round to the back of the building.

Alex held his breath when they heard something crash and held an arm out in front of Taylor protectively, though he really wouldn't be able to protect either of them given what little room there is for them to move. After getting over the shock of seeing zombies attacking his classmates, the first thing that Alex did was look for Taylor. Afer all, he was her date tonight and he was responsible for her. He found her trying to twist away from a zombie who was gnawing on her upper arm and rescued her before diving under the stage. After all, what are the odds that zombies were smart enough to think that you'd hide from them much more actually bend down to search for people under anything when there's a whole crowd of them out there.

He waited unmoving, for something to leap out of the endless darkness under the stage, at them and when many seconds passed and nothing did, he allowed himself to relax. He sighed and turned to Taylor. He could just barely make out the shadowy outline of her figure beside him but he didn't need to see to know she was in pain when she released a soft hiss.

"You ok?"

He murmured. There was no answer for a few long moments and he reached out to grasp her forearm, cringing when he felt how clammy and cold it was. "Hey, it's ok, we'll get out of this somehow ok?" Taylor leaned in to rest her head against his shoulder. "Ok, I'm ok. Just…queasy and scared." She whispered. Alex sighed and lifted an arm to rub her back comfortingly.

They sat there for a few minutes like that, unmoving and silent and Alex felt like a dick for it but he contemplated whether or not he should tell her now before it could get any worse, before they _die_ at least. He wanted to go with a clear conscience. Taylor was a nice girl (or at least to him she was, he's heard of how she treated people in clubs) but really, to be completely honest, he liked her for a total of one week before his subconscious, which he'd been trying to supress since forever kicked in again and slapped him in the face reminding him that he didn't really want her like he didn't want her twin, or _any_ girl for that matter.

"Alex,"

Alex almost flinched in surprise. "Yeah?"

"…I love you."

Alex bit his lip, stumped, not having any clue what to say.

"Ummm…"

Then he noticed how Taylor just slumped against him, as if she just lost consciousness and Alex recoiled a little bit in alarm.

"Taylor? Taylor you ok?" he asked.

Still, she didn't move. Concerned, Alex put a palm to her face and frowned, it didn't feel like she had a fever or anything, as a matter of fact, her skin was clammy and cool. Alex pulled out his phone and held Taylor away a little bit so he could see her face. He pushed a random key to turn on the backlight and held the phone up to her face.

Her eyes were closed but when he lifted the light to her face, they snapped open and Alex barely registered that her irises had turned a glossy milky white before she opened he mouth with an inhuman growl and lunged at him.

Sean, Hank and Alex all made it to the backdoors without getting attacked and when they made it through, all they encountered were two zombies, one of which Sean promptly beheaded with a brutal, two handed swing and the other, to Hank and Sean's surprise, Darwin charged at and bashed the ever living fuck out of. He swung at it's head as soon as he saw it like a star baseball player going for a homerun and bludgeoned it's head and torso about ten times after it went down. After he was done, Hank squinted at the zombie and tilted his head to the side.

"Was that Angel Salvatore?"

"Yeah, why else do you think I hit her? Bitch's been making my life miserable since 7th grade and I finally had an excuse to hit her." Darwin said, panting slightly from the effort he exerted bashing Angel's head open.

Sean spotted the sound system just off right of the stage and pointed at it. "There it is! Here," Sean said, handing the remaining two CDs he had to Hank and pushing him at the direction of the sound system. "Go, I'll go get Alex." Hank grabbed the CDs and ran. The sooner he got to the sound system, the sooner this was over. Darwin was right at his heels and he said "Switch with me." holding out his baseball bat to Hank. Hank briefly glanced at him and the small throng of zombies loitering about between them and the sound system and handed the axe over.

Sean barely got to see Darwin violently chopping up zombies and Hank bashing a zombie head or two out of the corner of his eye before he ducked under the stage.

"Alex!"

He shouted, getting his iPhone out and using it as a makeshift flashlight. The stage wasn't all that big, it was one of those cheap ones that could easily be taken apart and re-assembled and within seconds, he spotted something near the opposite end of the stage. With a bit of squinting, he recognized curly blond hair and a white dress above something that was flailing and squirming and had legs that were sheathed in black dress pants.

"Alex!" he yelled again.

And when he did, a fist rose up in the dimness and hit the curly blonde head on the side, causing it topple over and off whomever was wearing the black dress pants. Alex sat up and Sean was relieved to see he wasn't hurt. Yet. Alex looked surprised and he squinted at the light "Sean?"

Then, the other blond, which Sean realized was a zombie Taylor lunged at him again and Sean gasped. "Alex!" He ducked out from under the stage, leapt up on it, ran across as fast as his legs could carry him and was under it again as soon as he landed on the other side. Alex was only a foot or two away, struggling under Taylor and Sean didn't even hesitate, he rushed in, grabbed Alex by the shoulders and started yanking him out. When they were out, he saw that Alex had both hands in Taylor's hair, yanking it back to keep her teeth away from him and Sean scrambled up behind her, grabbed a handful of hair too and yanked back, pulling her off of Alex.

Alex shuffled away and as he did Taylor scrambled up, snapping her jaws at Sean. Sean swung out with the machete, catching her full on the mouth and creating a wide Glasgow smile across her face. She fell back and Sean flinched as her blood splattered all over his hands and arms, a droplet landing right beneath his eye.

Taylor didn't go down though and as soon as she had her footing back, she charged at Sean again. Sean sidestepped her and brought the machete down on her neck with as much force as he could put into it, chopping her head clean off. Her head landed right by Alex's feet and Alex flinched, standing up and taking a few steps back. He looked up at Sean with wide blue eyes, his breathing laboured. "Holy fuck."

"Arrrgghhh"

Sean turned to the side and flinched back, realizing that he and Alex were now sandwiched between the stage and a ballroom packed with zombies. "Shit." He cursed, holding his machete in front of him defensively.

Just then, the speakers cackled to life and preceding the piercing sound of feedback, Bodies by drowning pool suddenly started blaring out all over the ballroom.

Every undead in the room ceased moving and Alex stared at them, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What the hell?"

"_If there's anyone still alive, __**run**__ for your fucking life __**now**__ thank you."_

Hank's voice said over the sound of music and Sean took that as his cue. He grabbed Alex's arm and started shoving his way through the crowd of zombies. Alex, who was still getting over the shock of his ex-girlfriend (because no matter how you look at it, it's certainly over now.) turning into a zombie and attempting to eat him, let himself get dragged, shoving zombies out of the way here and there so they could get out faster. Somewhere along the line, a hand grabbed at his arm and he yelped before realizing that it was just a zombie girl's bracelet caught on his cufflink. He tugged on it and almost fell over when a blade swung out of nowhere and chopped the hand off of the wrist it was connected to. He turned to Sean. "Thanks." He said uncertainly. Sean beamed again. "Sure thing." And for some strange reason, even though they were in smack dab in the middle of a literal nightmare prom, trying to make their way out, Sean's eyes were bright, ecstatic almost, as if chopping off zombie limbs was a favored hobby that he hadn't gotten to do in a while.

And probably for some twisted, even _stranger_ reason, Alex thought he looked good like that, dusted lightly in guts, blood and armed with a machete that was bloodier than Jason Vorhees'.

Sean's hand slid from his arm to his own and he gripped it tightly, squeezing it as if he'd never let go. It reminded Alex of many years ago after his dad left and his mom thought he ran away from home, when all he really did was hide up the tree in Sean's backyard. Sean found him of course and got him to come down after patiently coaxing him down for an entire hour. When he finally got him to do so, Sean took his hand and squeezed it just like that, as if he couldn't be any happier that Alex was alright.

Sean kicked a zombie out of the way and Alex saw the wide French doors that lead to the atrium right before they made a mad dash for it. When they made it out, Hank and Darwin were already there with three other teens who all looked blood smeared and ruffled but unbitten. Hank was holding up his phone as if he was taking a picture and Sean shot him a "wtf?" look for a second before deciding it wasn't the most important thing at the moment and diverting his attention to Darwin. "This everyone that's left?" he asked, tilting his head to the three teens; a girl with dark hair and white high lights, a brunette boy with blue eyes and a tall blue-eyed boy with short blond hair.

"Pretty much, yeah." Darwin said with a nod before jerking his head to the doors. "Let's go!"

They all ran for the main doors then and straight for the cars. Darwin, Hank and the three survivors they found all piled in Darwin's car and Alex got into Sean's truck, expecting Sean to jump in the driver's seat and zoom away but instead Sean ran to the truckbed, grabbed a few things and ran back to the front doors. Alex jumped out of the car and followed him.

"What are you doing?" he yelled, watching as Sean put two huge gas cans on the ground before opening one. Sean turned to look at him. "I'm burning this place down, what does it look like I'm doing? You don't expect all those zombies to stay in there forever do you?" He asked, picking up the container he opened with both hands and splashing its contents all over the front entrance. Alex paused for a second for a silent _Oh. I see. Right. _before opening the other gas can and helping Sean douse as much of the front of the building with is as they can. When the gas cans were empty, Sean took out his lighter, lit it and promptly threw it at the deepest puddle of gasoline.

As soon as it ignited, Sean grabbed Alex's sleeve and they ran back to the truck. Darwin started his car after he was sure they were both in and they all high tailed it out of the place.

* * *

><p>"Sean!"<p>

Liam ran straight for Sean the second he got out of the car and completely ignored all the carnage smeared on his older brother as he wrapped his arms around his waist and buried his tiny face in Sean's lower stomach. Sean sighed in relief and bent down to hug him back.

He called Mrs. Summers as soon as they were out of town and she told him she took Gabe and Liam to her sister's house three cities away. They drove all there straight away and made it a few hours after sunrise. Apparently, when he had his phone out in the atrium, Hank was recording footage to show the police and as of the moment, he and Mrs. Summers were at the nearest station, trying to convince the police of what happened and get them to do something about it. Darwin was in Mrs. Summer's sister's house with the three other survivors; Bobby Drake, his girlfriend Anna Marie and Warren Worthington, trying to contact their parents.

They didn't know if zombies invaded other houses, or if there are still people that needed rescuing, or _not_. But as of the moment, they were safe and that's all that mattered.

"You did it, you saved Alex!" Liam exclaimed, pulling away from Sean to point at Alex. Alex grinned down at him, a bit of a confused twist in his eyebrows and looked at Sean questioningly. Sean shrugged one shoulder. Alex turned back to Liam. "Yup, he sure did."

Liam began jumping up and down and Sean took that as a cue and leaned down to pick him up. Liam wrapped his arms and legs around him and Sean ruffled his hair. "Glad you're ok too little buddy."

Alex watched them with a fond smile. He patted Liam's head. "Just wait til he gets older and turns into a total dick."

Sean glared at him. "Fuck you Summers, stop ruining my bromance moment."

Liam untangled his arms from around Sean's neck to push away the long, ginger curls hiding his ear from view. Alex saw him lean in and whisper something to Sean and tilted his head inquisitively when a hint of a blush bloomed across Sean's cheeks. Sean put Liam down and started ushering him back to the house.

"Alright, it's way too early for you to be up, go back to sleep you."

"But-!"

"Sleep!" Sean said, snapping his fingers and pointing to the house.

And still just giddy that his brother was ok, Liam "Ok!"-ed cutely and scampered back to the house. When he was gone, Sean sighed and sat down in the open truckbed of his pickup.

"Such a sweet kid. So hard to believe he's related to you." Alex commented, leaning against the side of the truck.

"Shut up, Alex."

Alex smirked and said nothing. He nodded to the house. "You're not going in?"

Sean made a face. "Nahh, I don't feel safe indoors yet. I just spent many hours trying to get the hell out of enclosed spaces filled with flesh-eating zombies."

Alex nodded. "Right." and plopped himself down next to Sean on the truckbed.

"Thank you by the way, for saving my ass."

Sean shrugged, smiling. "It was nothing, I got to crash prom and maul zombies, aside from nearly getting eaten, it was fun."

Alex returned the smile and they just sat there smiling at each other for a few seconds before Sean pulled a face as if he remembered something very cringe-worthy. "Oh and uh…sorry about your girlfriend. Sorry for killing her too."

Alex sighed heavily. "Yeah…I might go to hell for this but, it's ok. Besides, I was going to break up with her anyway."

Sean opened his mouth to say something, did a double take and just stared at Alex. "You were?"

Alex looked away and reached into his pocket, for the piece of plastic that suddenly felt white hot.

"Right after prom? Really? Wow, that is surprisingly cold Alex."

Alex wrinkled his nose. "Yeah I guess so, but it's better than continuing to drag her along when I don't really like her."

Sean paused, trying not to let the indefinite glee slowly building up in his chest show. He looked at Alex with a carefully constructed confused expression. "You didn't? Then why'd you date her in the first place?"

Alex shrugged. "Cause I'm an idiot?"

Sean snorted. "Can't argue with that. Though I think "idiot" is too mild. I'd say retard is a bit more fitting."

Alex rolled his eyes but said nothing. He looked down at his dress shoes and swallowed as he thought about what he wanted to say next.

"I think I dated her also partly because I can't get over the fact that I _am_ stupid."

"Umm, come again?" Sean asked, confused.

Alex slowly turned to look at him and he bit his lip as he stared at that pale, freckled, annoying, stupidly _beautiful_ ginger face.

"What kind of dumbass am I, secretly liking someone who isn't just stupider than me, but could be a total ass-face too whenever he felt like it?"

Sean's eyebrows furrowed but Alex didn't miss the way he swallowed nervously. Sean was a smart kid, he really was and Alex knew he was already guessing where he was going. Alex swallowed his own nervousness down and plowed through, looking away as he did.

"I mean, this jackass is rude and sarcastic and annoying and weird and…" Alex took a deep breath and turned to Sean. "He's a frikkin ginger for cripes sake."

Sean's eyes widened and Alex resisted the urge to run to the nearest wall and bang his head against it. His heart was beating so fast and he was so nervous, he was saying words without really thinking them through.

"With freckles and stupid long, hippie red hair and nice blue eyes and eyelashes that are so long, they're girly and freaky…" and Alex snapped his mouth shut, realizing he was beginning to enumerate all the things he liked about Sean. Sean was staring at him like he just told him a zombie bit him and he was about to turn into one in the next second. Alex coughed and looked away. "Yeah…umm, so…"

"Alex,"

Alex pulled out the piece of plastic in his pocket and without looking at him, handed it to Sean.

"Yeah you could laugh in my face all you want now and before you brutally turn me down, here, this is yours. Sorry for not giving it back til today."

Sean took it and frowned in confusion. "My hospital bracelet? Wait, was this from when-"

"I hid in the tree in your backyard? Yeah."

After getting Alex to come down from the tree, Alex realized that he left his dad's army tag up in one of the branches, the only thing Alex had left of him. Alex tried not to let it show that he still wanted it, after all he was furious with his dad back then. But Sean saw right through him and attempted to get it back, suffering a mild concussion, spraining his wrist, dislocating his elbow and breaking his leg in the process when a branch he was stepping on snapped and he fell off the tree. He was hospitalized for almost 5 days and Alex never felt guiltier for anything in his life.

"It was one of the most _stupidest,_" Alex sighed "and sweetest things anyone's ever done for me. and I think I've been in lo-" Alex cut himself off before he could say something that'd kill him in embarrassment "…-liked you ever since. I just didn't admit it to myself until recently."

Sean didn't say anything for so long that eventually, Alex's curiosity won over his nervousness and he cautiously turned his head to look at Sean. He couldn't for the life of him decipher the look on the redhead's face and he was about to ask but Sean cut him off.

"It took you a zombie apocalypse to realize you like me?"

"No, I-"

Sean laughed and rolled his eyes. "God, you really _are_ an idiot."

Alex opened his mouth to retaliate but Sean grabbed his face and sealed his reply with a kiss. When he pulled away, Sean was blushing but he was wearing a smile that was equal parts shit eating grin and positively giddy, warm smile.

"-but fuck it, if I don't like you back anyway."

Alex blinked twice and smiled slowly.

"You _like_ me…" Sean stated as if he couldn't believe it. "You do realize I am _never_ going to let you live that down right?"

Alex rolled his eyes and mock punched him in the stomach. "Hey! You like me back you ass."

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Touché."

They stared at each other for a second.

"Is this the part where we start making out?" Sean asked.

Alex shrugged. "Guess so."

Sean smirked. "Ok."

Alex returned the smirk and leaned in to kiss Sean who decided not to be a dick for once and kissed him back, putting a hand on the back of his head to pull him closer.

**-END-**


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